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Will 2012 be the year of the “birth control moms”?

Just a few weeks ago, the notion would have seemed far-fetched. The country is deeply divided on abortion, but not on contraception; the vast majority of American women have used it, and access hasn’t been a front-burner political issue since the Supreme Court decided Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965.

But then Rick Santorum said states ought to have the right to outlaw the sale of contraception.

And Susan G. Komen for the Cure yanked its funding for Planned Parenthood.

And the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops teed off on President Barack Obama’s contraception policy.

And, she says, the stakes are high: Women backed Barack Obama in big numbers in 2008 but then swung right in 2010. If the president is to win reelection in 2012, he’ll need to win women back — and Lake and other Democrats see the GOP push on contraception as a gift that will make that easier.

“I feel like the world is spinning backwards,” said former Rep. Patricia Schroeder, who has often related the troubles she has as a young married law student getting her birth control prescriptions filled in the early 1960s. “If you had told me when I was in law school that this would be a debate in 2012, I would have thought you were nuts … And everyone I talk to thinks so, too.”

Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University, also sees the chance of a huge female backlash if the Republicans overreach.

“If women feel they are being targeted again, that women’s health is on the line — that’s not an argument you want to make in an election year,” she said.

“This doesn’t inhibit any woman’s ability to access contraception,” Conway said. “The question is should we pay for it, and should conscientious objectors be forced to compromise their beliefs.”

And, she argued, Obama blundered by talking reproduction while American women want to hear about recovery. Voters see it as a distraction from jobs, jobs, jobs.

“Overreach and distraction can really sink his presidency,” Conway said. “Voters demand a course correction from either party when they see overreach — and in his case, course correction means losing reelection.”

How it plays out between now and November may depend on how long the debate lasts — and whether the contraception-access or religious-freedom frame prevails.

The conservatives on the other side say the fight is not about birth control or women’s health. It’s about morality and religious liberty under the Constitution. And that’s a basic American value that resonates with voters, they say.

“That’s about as fundamentally American as any principle I’m aware of,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told reporters this week. Blunt is sponsoring legislation that would allow any employer to refuse to cover any health benefit on moral grounds — not just birth control or abortion, and not just employers like a school or hospital that have a formal religious affiliation.

Why is the government even in the birth control business? I would think that birth control would be apart of our own personal responsibilities. I am starting to believe that our president does not believe anyone should have any responsibility.

How stupid and gullible can the American electorate possibly be ? The Democrats are hoping the answer is -VERY. The issue is not birth control,which none of the candidates on either side are opposed to, but that of control itself,a major part of the Obama "doctrine" The administration is merely using the ginned up birth control issue to mask its true agenda of making every aspect of life in America subject to their unconstitutional authority.Aside from the obvious pandering to the female vote,birth control never was and never should be used as a campaigning tool.The issue here is allowing the president do arbitrarily decide,without constitutional authority,who is to pay for reproductive services,whatever they might be,something that insurance companies or employers should not be forced to do by the government.This is only another part of the power grab and "constitution and states rights be damned" agenda of this radical socialist [communist] president and his handlers.

Here's one issue that is even more important than this article. Whomever is elected to become the next president, that man will certainly have to face an economic crisis of historic proportions. On Monday, the president released his budget. President Obama’s proposed budget for 2013 has $3.803 trillion in spending, $2.902 trillion in revenue, and a deficit of $901 billion that will be added to our national debt.

From what I can see, the Lefties are obsessed with all things sexual -- so they will not vote for Rick, Mitt, et. al. Which is OK with me, since that means fewer little baby Libs in the future. Now, I am not worried at all about the Government in my bedroom -- although they do increasingly creep into my wallet for more $$$. My interests are less around sex -- and more around energy, the debt, civil society, etc. Guess that makes me an enemy of the BHO tribe......

Much as the liberals try to make this aspect of Obamacare to be a debate about contraception, it won't work. Contraception isn't a public-policy issue. Contraception is a matter of personal choice. What is at stake is whether Obamacare's enforcers can trump religious liberty and freedom of conscience protected in the First Amendment. If they can succeed in this case, there's nothing to stop them from requiring the local Jewish Community Center to put pork on the menu for dinners provided for seniors. All it would take is for HHS to decide that pork is something seniors should have provided to them.

This is a debate because left wing media has intentionally made it part of the debate. Starting with imastupidnopalis at one of the 30 gop debates. Until then it wasn't brought up. Just a way to deflect from the crapppy economy despite all the engineered stats.

This is a debate because left wing media has intentionally made it part of the debate. Starting with imastupidnopalis at one of the 30 gop debates. Until then it wasn't brought up. Just a way to deflect from the crapppy economy despite all the engineered stats.

i'd say the first thing you'd probably want to do to keep this from lasting into october is to tell your idiot congressional members to stop introducing legislation such as roy blount has. talk about death panels- how simple minded is it to suggest employers & insurance companies should be able to prevent access to legal, FDA approved drugs/treatments simply because they may have some "religious"/moral objection?